IMD has predicted that India will get normal rainfall for the third year in a row in 2018. It expects the monsoon to be 97% of the long term average and that it will hit the Kerala coast on May 15. Watch BusinessToday.In video to find out how a good monsoon can boost India's economic growth.

The experts also have doubts over the effectiveness of the price deficiency payment (PDA) mechanism Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana (BBY) that was experimented by the Madhya Pradesh government for eight khariff crops last year.

ITC Limited, one of the largest private procurers of wheat in the country, expects the retail prices of primary agricultural produce to go up if the government goes ahead with its plans to introduce Minimum Support Price (MSP), which is 1.5 times the cost of production for all crops.

Inflation based on monthly Wholesale Price Index (WPI) rose to six-month high of 3.59 per cent in October as compared to 2.60 per cent for the previous month and 1.27 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year.

Wholesale inflation dropped to 2.60 per cent in September as prices of food articles, including vegetables, softened. In August, the wholesale price index (WPI) had zoomed to a four-month high of 3.24 per cent. WPI inflation was at 1.36 per cent in September last year.